Who made them?

Tlatilco was a complex society near the west bank of Lake Texcoco in the Basin of Mexico, dating to approximately 1200–900 BCE (3,200–2,600 years ago). More than two thousand years later, the Aztecs would build their capital on an island in the same lake. After the Spanish conquest, the lake was largely drained, and Mexico City now sits on top of the Tlatilco site.

Whether there were full-time artists in this period is unknown, “but it is certain that the skills necessary to function as an artist in the tradition were passed down and mastered over generations.”²

Tlatilco was one of a group of communities that at one time or another produced figurines in closely related styles. These included Tlapacoya on an island near the opposite bank of the lake, and San Pablo Panteón in the modern state of Morelos.